*OFFICIAL* M18x R1/R2 Owner's Lounge Thread

oh so theres still 1 USB 2.0 left good stuff, thanks

XVNKP HDD Bracket
M9T51 Interposer Cable, SATA
9D7N3 System Motherboard Kit (Contain motherboard GRP9C + Thermal Pad F1RJC)
YYFHR I/O Daughter Board
GG7V9 Daughter Board

I went through R2 part list and got these, not sure about the last few. what is thermal pad on the mobo? do I get the whole package or just the GRP9C? I/O daughter board, and I found GG7V9 under cable/cord so this is the ribbon cable? also back then when I ordered triple piped heatsink from Dell they gave me a hard time. I told them it was for upgrade cause my system wasn't cool enough and had to go through a few sales rep, two of them refused me say they dont sell parts separately.. but the 3rd said ok. is there any special thing that I need to mention to them? I'm getting this feeling upgrading isn't liked by AW sales reps.

 

When did I say I was afraid of it blowing up? And my CPU is already overclocked. I don't think you understand what I've been saying.

Edit: I plan to further overclock it myself up to 4.5 GHz. :thumbsup:

 

Parts required are:

• 9D7N3 - M18x R2 Motherboard
• YYFHR - M18x R2 I/O Daughterboard with ribbon cable
• XVNKP - M18x R2 3-Disk HDD Caddy
• M9T51 - M18x R2 SATA Interposer

You do not need to order a GG7V9 daughter board.

The thermal pad is exactly that... the CPU TIM that goes between the CPU and heat sink. So, it is optional.

 

can you help me check what is the Dell alienware m18xr2 3rd Generation Intel Core i7-3940XM part number . urgent need this part number pls help
thank

 

Dell in general dont sell CPU/GPU, you get those from ebay. or could be just me they dont like selling those other than machine, the sales reps I spoke with two of them won't even sell me heatsink because I told them I want to upgrade.. Canada sales rep.. suck

 

Hmm.. I have an M18xR1 and I am able to integrate the USB 3.0 drivers into the boot.wim
The result is a USB 3.0 flash drive with windows 7 installer that boots and installs straight from the USB 3.0 port without having to load any drivers during the installation pre-enviroment. Windows 7 completely installs and boots in about 4 minutes.
I used DISM to mount the boot.wim and integrate the drivers.

I wrote a little batch program to do it for me, but I doubt the M18xR2 uses the same drivers as the R1.

 

Hi all Happy Christmas i have been missing these forums lately Mr Fox i am ordering the R2 parts for my m18x after christmas got a quote for $602aus for thoses parts. What did you pay?

 

this i'd like to know too LOL

on a side note, check this out rofl
Amazon.com: Wintec FileMate 128GB ExpressCard 34 MLC Internal / External Solid State Drive (SSD). Perfect Fit for Apple MacBook and MacBook Pro. High Performance 165 MB/s Read Model 3FMS4E128JM-R: Computers & Accessories
250 dollars for additional storage, but only 165 mb/s =(
how many people would be interested in this?

 

Not me, SSD all day!

By the way, my system shipped and is only a few hours drive away! But ETA is tomorrow...

 

@DanXbix - about the same price... you'll enjoy the upgrade, but have to relearn a few things.

@J.Dre - sweet! I am excited for you. Man, this has been a long, long wait... thought you'd never get it.

 

listen, we have to stop these spooky coincidences. it's too much. we both had a Dell XPS 15 before our AW M18x R2, I had one of my orders cancelled and from what I've read you have too, I think we both have similar specs on our AW, and my system was shipped but I can only pick it up tomorrow. anything more than this and I'll be calling a psychologist haha

 

Yeah, haha. That's weird as hell.

Maybe it's because of the season. On their site they claim to deliver by Christmas. All I know is, I'm freaking excited. I'm hoping FedEx comes straight here today and drops it off, haha. Won't be able to sleep tonight if it comes tomorrow!

 

Is there a way to flash back to the unlocked 3.0 bios from the 8.0 locked?

 

I know, Maybe you guy are cousin, ha ha! Lol

 

i think so, head over to TI forum and they should have steps there you can follow.

 

Me too. After several attempts - three reorders and four delays, among a dozen phone calls - it is finally going to arrive.

 

now im worried mine wont arrive on the 31 LOL im pumped man i hope when you receive yours you'll be happier than a chimp and his beloved banana lol

 

yet ANOTHER day of delay from Customs - I went berserk and told them that whatever happens, tomorrow I'm going to pick it up... poor shipping company rep ended up stammering but I'm really angry, it's been here since Sunday and I don't know what they're waiting for to let it pass through.. unless the seller installed a radioactive i88 processor or something

 

It has arrived, and oh, is it something else. It is beautiful, haha.

 

Haha, someone's gonna have a fun Christmas! - congrats on the Alien landing....

 

Congratulations, I know you'll have a great Christmas now

OB

 

Thanks fellas, it is going to be an awesome Christmas, haha.

So, you guys know how you can't configure RAID SSD's with the 680M's in SLI? I can't even enable SLI with mine. I get a blue screen upon login, at the welcome screen. So, anyone know a solution to this? It does work on my stock HDD. I am using the respawn, not a fresh install.

 

Is this with Dell SSD's or aftermarket? - Win 8 or 7?

 

They're aftermarket, and using windows 7.

 

Well, there are plenty of guys out there running raided aftermarket ssd's with 680m sli just fine....I think it was just the Dell ssd's that cause the compatibility alert on the website - not even 100% sure why that was. Anyhow, back to your problem. If you were able to enable SLI on the factory drive before you put in your ssd's, it shows it's not related to your gpu's, which is a good thing. I highly doubt that it's a SSD hardware/firmware problem - what drives are they, by the way?

Just thinking aloud here, but you could try and uninstall the gpu drivers and re-install them....if you've respawned to the ssd raid, something could have gone funky. I take it your factory configuration was one HDD? - maybe when the respawn image has been created, it's based on your single, not a raid image....spreading that over the two drives might have corrupted some files....

Alternatively, what you could try is to install just one SSD in the machine (whilst under raid in bios), try a respawn to just a single ssd and if that works and sli works fine, you can then hook up the other ssd, create the raid association and extend the volume across the two drives.....

 

I think you can expect more than this problem having Respawned from HDD to SSD. It is not advised. I have seen a few lucky guys that had no problems after doing so, but I have tried it more than once and the system never performs correctly. When Windows installs to an SSD it is "aware" of it and makes appropriate adjustments. I suspect the problems you are having are because something with the drivers was corrupted during the process. As Steve suggested, you can try uninstalling the video drivers and reinstall them fresh. Choose the NVIDIA options for "clean install" so it removes everything before installing the new drivers and PhysX.

If this goes quickly and easily and you don't need to burn more calories troubleshooting that will be a good outcome. If it does not seem to do the trick, I think you will save time and frustration in the long run just doing a clean Windows install the right way. Why spend time troubleshooting a known faulty method? (At least that is the way I look at it.) During the first part of Windows setup, delete every partition present and let Windows install to unallocated disk space, creating its own new partitions in the process.

 

It does the same thing even if I only respawn a single SSD, which is unusual. I am going to do a clean install, hopefully that works. I'll be RAIDing the drives and then installing a fresh copy of windows. Hopefully the resource DVD has everything I need.

Edit: Solved the issue by adjusting the BIOS.

 

Check if your on ACHI or raid in bios. I have a single ssd and If I make changes to bios and forget to switch that option from raid back to AHCI , it blue screens every time. I also suggest to not use resource disk and get latest drivers from dell. Those drivers are more then likely out of date on the disk.

 

It is because you are going from HDD to SSD, which is totally usual, not unusual. Those that find success cloning or Respawning from HDD to SSD are few and far between, or they are not as successful as they think and don't recognize the performance decline.

Another thing you may want to verify... Double-check to be sure your BIOS was and still is set to RAID. If you create an image or try to clone from a Windows installation using AHCI it will pitch a huge fit installing to a single drive if the BIOS setting does not match the original Windows installation. (Avoid using AHCI as the BIOS setting whenever possible... use only RAID, even for a single drive configuration.)

Agree with Brother Postal Painmaker. Don't use the Resource CD for drivers, OSD or Alienware Command Center. Always download the latest from Dell/Alienware (or the OEM in the case of drivers). The only exception would be if those posted for download are the exact same version as those on the CD.

If you are going to create the RAID membership before installing Windows instead of waiting and using RST within the Windows environment, be sure to visit the Intel downloads page and grab the latest Intel RST F6 drivers. You will want to manually install them during Windows setup.

HOW TO: Doing a Clean Windows Installation, Setting Up an SSD drive or RAID0

 

Ah, yes, that may be the issue. I created the image in achi not raid. I'll try once more to see if all goes well.

Thanks for the info and help guys.

 

You cannot just switch between RAID and AHCI at will. Hopefully, it will work or it will be wasted time and energy. If it seems successful, immediately bench your SSDs and check them for alignment. If it runs slower that advertised or has misalignment errors, you will probably want to resolve those issues by giving up and doing a clean install before investing a lot of time and energy troubleshooting a faulty Windows installation.

 

i am order my in Brazil..

Nebula Red
i7 3940XM
Dual GTX 680M
16 Gb ddr3 1600MHZ 2x8gb
2x Crucial M4 256 GB SSD
Killer 1103 + BT 4.0
BD combo

 

OUCH! - that's a killer setup! - congratulations on a wise choice of hardware !!!

 

Thanks!!!!:thumbsup:

will be my first time with a Alienware

 

The reason I'm exhausting all possible outcomes with the respawn is because I am without Internet until tomorrow evening when the guys come out and install new fiber optic lines. I'm currently on my cell phone, and have been for a while. If all else fails, I will do a complete fresh install once my Internet is back up and running (for the appropriate drivers). After that is done and I still cannot raid my SSD's, I'm going to call dell and find out what the deal is.

I appreciate the help though.

 

if you want, u can go back to AHCI and change registry in your window image to raid, then switch BIOS to raid and you will should be able to restore your image which was originally AHCI onto raid setup and still bootable. however, performance drops.

a reinstall is recommended.

 

Hiya guys! :hi2:

Just wanted to wish everyone on the forum a very happy Christmas and a prosperous new year, have fun over the holiday's, kids.....

Steve.

 

Merry Christmas!
"Free Post Count"

 

I farted!!!!!!

 

Merry Christmas!

 

Merry Christmas everyone!

 

after days of torture with the Customs department, I was finally given the go-ahead to pick up my AW. it's... unbelievable. no words to describe it! happy christmas to me and all of you haha

 

I just bought a m18x R2, first time Alienware user. I just couldn't look the other way anymore... lol

While my new baby is in transit, I wanted to plan out and order the hard drive / ssd upgrades and I have a few questions for you guys. I planned two different scenarios out and I wanted to know a) if it is possible and b) which ones would you prefer?

Scenario 1:
- 256/240 GB mSata drive - Crucial M4 or Mushkin Atlas (thoughts?) for OS
- 2 x 750GB Seagate Hybrid drives in Raid 0
- 1 x 1TB drive for additional storage 9.5mm

Scenario 2:
- 64GB mSata drive for caching
- 512 GB SSD - Plextor M5P on Sata III port
- 2 x 1TB (one one Sata III port, one on Sata II) in Raid 0 in conjunction with the 64GB mSata for caching

Like I said, is this POSSIBLE? And which scenario would you prefer over the other and why? Any other part recommendations?

 

I wouldn't do either of those. Do you plan to use the optical bay? If not, you can fit an HDD in there easily.

I would do:

mSATA 256GB as a Caching SSD for the 2TB RAID 0 HDD's - one HDD on the SATA II port, and one HDD in the optical bay. And then a single 512GB SSD or 512GB RAID 0 (2x 256GB SSD's) That's probably your best option. Using a SATA III and SATA II port for seperate HDD's in RAID would be a waste in my opinion. Use the SATA III to its full potential!

But if you must choose one, I would do scenario 2.

 

Double post, sorry. My Internet connection is acting up today...

 

Yes, I definitely am going to use the optical drive. I see your point about the Sata III potential and I was thinking about that, too. But... the mechanical hard drives (even the Sata III drives) don't really give you Sata III speed anyway AFAIK, correct? I definitely need about 2TB storage, but also want the benefits of an SSD boot/programs drive. Does the 256GB mSata really bring so much in performance win over the 64GB for caching? After all the Hybrid drives have only 8GB, right?

 

More space doesn't necessarily mean better performance (unless we're speaking SSD's). But as a caching drive, I would want a larger capacity, especially with 2TB of HDD space. Check out this mSata SSD on Amazon. It has insane read/write speeds, faster than most SSD's. It is also a good size. I'd recommend this over a standard 64GB mSata. I say, "go with the second scenario." I think it will suit you well.

Edit: In fact, if you were to purchase this mSata drive I linked above, you could intall the OS on it and use the SSD for games, and the HDD's for whatever else. Of course the HDD's wouldn't be faster because you would eliminate the caching aspect, but you will survive.

 

I'd maybe consider binning the idea of a cache drive - especially if you're gonna drop cash on it that would equate to a normal SSD. TBH, I'd consider getting two 512gb SSD's and raiding them (if you want to) - then, for storage, add a large HDD coupled with a small 32gb or 64gb mSata to cache that drive......using a 256/240gb mSata as a cache drive is a bit of a waste if you ask me - you might as well just get a normal SSD right at the outset. Grab a large HDD/mSata later on if funds are tight....

 

Just exactly how much stuff you have to be storing on all of this. and exactly where have you been keeping it before thinking about buying this laptop???

 

Before I used a 2TB external HD for the storage. It would be nice to have it all internal, and since the m18X offers gracious hard drive bays, why not?

So, just to clarify this, I CAN use a mSata drive for caching the Raid 0 mechanical drives?